Three Brother's Wineries - Seneca Lake, NY

I like wine. I'm not really sure what's "nostalgic" about it, but it sure is nice to share a glass with friends, or with a good book on rainy days. I am lucky enough to live in an area rich with some of the country's (world's?) best wines...at least in my opinion. The Finger Lakes region of New York State is flowing with unbelievably good varieties, and the wineries they come from are full of character, especially with the addition of a little group of wineries we stumbled on a couple of weeks ago.

We recently headed for the Seneca Lake wine trail and stopped at Nagy's winery to pick up a particular bottle we like. What we found there were three new wineries owned by "The Three Brothers". The buildings were not officially opened when we stopped, but they invited us in and let us taste the offerings and experience the individuality of each tasting room.

We were told that each building has a different theme based on the personalities of each brother. Stoney Lonesome is an elegant, upscale tasting room complete with a beautiful toucan, who we got to see only minutes after being introduced to his new home; Passion Feet has a jazzy, colorful and somewhat sensual feel to it's decor; and Rogue's Hollow is a renegade-themed building at the end of a winding dirt road, complete with old, rusty trucks and a run-down shack...well, at least it looks like that until you get inside!!

But the creativity doesn't stop there! The labels on the bottles are just as imaginative, with names ranging from sophisticated, to suggestive, to comedic (yet somewhat humorously offensive)...with great illustrations to match. They were fantastic! We came home with bottles of "Backseat Bounce", "Lonely Seaman", and "White Buck".

Most of the wines are combinations of varieties, and the results are some of the best tasting and most "fun" wines we've come across. I can honestly say that I did not try anything I didn't like. I have a tendancy to choose semi-sweet varieties, but even the drier wines in these tasting rooms appealed to my taste buds!

The impression we left with was one that will lead us back again and again. I predict that this little group of wineries will do very well. They offer great wine and a great atmosphere. There's something for everyone!

For more information and directions to the wineries, visit their link at http://threebrotherswineries.com/

Decorating with Antique Postcards

A few years ago I fell in love with vintage Christmas postcards when I came across a little gift shop selling them for a dollar or two. I couldn't resist the charming images, or the simple and thoughtful notes written to friends on the back. Until the shop closed, I would pick up one or two each year to add to the collection, including one signed by a person who shared my last name!

I don't hold a large collection...only 10...all postmarked between 1917 and 1926, none of them museum quality. But I wanted to find a way to display them so that everyone could enjoy the charm and holiday greetings they so lovingly convey.

My solution was a simple one, in keeping with the vintage holiday decor that appears throughout the house each December. I carefully stuck them between the branches of a little alpine tree that I have sitting on the window seat in my dining room...a perfect solution!

From time to time I pull them out and read the friendly greetings sent to family and friends so long ago...and hope that I can somehow find another little gift shop with vintage postcards for $1!!

Crisp Air and Apples!

Fall is such a great time of year! After weeks of unusually hot weather (and breaking a sweat while standing still) I am finally able to enjoy the crisp, cool breezes of October with a light sweater and some hot spiced cider. Hallelujah!!

To celebrate the change of seasons, we packed the kids in the car and headed for Behling's Orchard in Mexico, New York, to pick a heaping pile of juicy apples. Apparently, most of Central New York had the same idea, as the grounds were packed with people...but there are a lot of trees, so fun was had by all.

We picked 42 pounds of apples, which sounds like a lot but really doesn't go nearly as far as you would think. On Sunday we canned 9 quarts of applesauce, and left the rest for fresh eating and making Apple Crisp. I am including the recipe below. My youngest brought this home from school, where they had made it as a class and loved every bite of it. It's very, very sweet, so a little goes a long way. But if you serve it with plenty of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream you can pack more away!!

- Apple Crisp -

12 apples

4 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

4 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup flour

** Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Peel, core and slice the apples and spread them in the dish. Sprinkle the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon over top of the apples. Mix together the butter, brown sugar and flour and sprinkle over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

The Incomplete Pump

This is my home's original water source, just outside my kitchen door. I would like to preserve it and eventually put in a garden (maybe a water garden) surrounding it...but it is missing it's handle and connecting parts.

Does anyone know where I might find replacements?

The Smell of Late Summer!

Ahhh... Pickling time!! The end of summer is near. Although we're currently having record warm temperatures in central New York, we've had just enough cool, crisp days to remind me that fall is just around the corner. Of course, the groans of the kids heading out the door for their first day of school yesterday left no doubt. The warm, hazy days are almost at an end. But that also means that pickling time is here!

When I was a kid my mother spent many days at the end of each summer packing the bounty of our large garden into jars. For two or three weeks the whole house would have a sweetly tangy smell that emanated from the numerous batches of tomatoes, pickles and relishes that she sealed in her canner on the stove. My sister and I would help peel and chop the vegetables, but mostly she worked alone adding this spice and that, until the smells made us positively drool! Then all winter she would send us to get a jar or two off the heavily loaded shelves under the stairs, and we would open up the flavors of warmer days.

I was fortunate to have parents who loved to garden, and who had the space and time to do so. With my small yard, my garden usually only gives us enough to eat fresh. My poor kids have only tasted grocery store pickles! Horror!! But that's about to change. In four to six weeks we will get to taste my first experiment with canning my own pickles! Rest assured, it's not the first time I've canned something, so I had some idea of what I was doing. Hopefully they'll taste as good as they look!!

Following is the Ball Blue Book recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles that I used:

4 pounds 4- to 6- inch cucumbers, cut into 1/4 inch slices;
2 pounds onions, thinly sliced (about 8 small);
1/3 cup canning salt;
2 cups sugar;
2 Tablespoons mustard seed;
2 teaspoons turmeric;
2 teaspoons celery seed;
1 teaspoon ginger;
1 teaspoon peppercorns;
3 cups vinegar;

Combine cucumber and onion slices in a large bowl, layering with salt; cover with ice cubes. Let stand 1 1/2 hours. Drain; rinse; drain again. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot; bring to a boil. Add drained cucumbers and onions and return to a boil. Pack hot pickles and liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

So Sorry! I've been out of town or incredibly busy for the past month and haven't had time to post any more info on House Histories. I will have to wait to share my experience of conducting a deed search because I have not yet been able to experience it myself! I had hoped to do that this summer, but life sometimes gets too busy. So, until then, I will post on other topics. But keep checking back as I am still hoping to get that done in the near future.

My apologies!

House History Part 2 - Resources

Where To Find the Past?

Once you have a general idea of the age of your home, there are several places you can look to find more clues to it's past. The main difference between researching your home and researching your family, is that you will in general be using only local resources. Your house is not likely to have traveled, and is probably sitting in the same place it's been since the original family moved in.

Local Memory

The first, and maybe most obvious source of information, is to ask around your neighborhood. Do you have elderly neighbors who have been in the area for a long time? They are an incredible resource, not only for names but for events and occurrences that took place in your home. In my own research, the house next door is still owned by the original family. They were able to tell us all sorts of stories, and pointed us to the grand-daughter of the man who built our house. While there were a lot of things she couldn't remember, she gave me a name and that spiraled into a detailed portrait of our home's first family. She also shared early photos, such as the one above, which I feel extremely lucky to have copies of.

Federal Census Records

An equally valuable resource is the Federal Census Records. The Census has been taken every ten years since 1790. The website http://www.ancestry.com/ has access to the records, but it is a paid service. Your public library may have a subscription to the Heritage Quest database, where you can find the census records with your library card. Each census is indexed by location and name. The indexes are made from transcriptions of the data, so sometimes there are errors. If you can't find what you're looking for using the index, it often pays to take the extra time and scroll through page by page. The census provides information about the people living in your home, their ages and occupations, and in the 1930 census you can even see if they had a radio. The records have been most valuable for me in providing names, which I can then search for in other places.

Local Museums

Your village, town or county museum is a great place to poke around in. Our village museum has a collection of obituaries going back many, many decades. It only took our incredibly knowledgeable historian a few minutes to locate the obituaries I was looking for. These short articles listed several organizations in which our people were involved in, giving us yet another direction to head in. You can also find out a bit about the town you live in, such as any industry or other reasons why people may have been attracted to the area at the time your home was built.

Historic Newspapers

Many newspapers across the country have been digitized and indexed in archives for use by the general public. In Central New York, the Syracuse Post-Standard has a historic archive available for the subscription fee of $6.95 a month. This is an incredibly valuable resource which I used to to find additional obituaries, social notes, bowling scores and church activities that involved the people living in my home. When I discovered that one family member had died of polio, I dug a little deeper and found that there was much concern over an outbreak a few months previous to his death. The local news can provide a much deeper understanding of what was impacting people during a particular time period.

A simple Google search may bring up links to the newspaper collection you are looking for. Some are free, some are paid subscriptions. Also check your local library as they often will have access to local archives of publications.


All of the information in this, and the previous post, comes from my personal experience researching my home. The resources I have described were the most valuable ones I found to use. I hope that the information is helpful and ask that you leave comments to let me know how I can improve this blog. Thanks!!

Research Your Home's History --- The Beginning

Why a House History?

People who buy old houses often develop an attachment to the little things in their homes that make them unique: details in the woodwork, creaks in the floor, even cracks in the old plaster walls. At least, I did. Our home became another member of the family to us, complete with personality... and a history that it seemed to want to share.

Shortly after moving in I began to find signs of the people who had lived here before us. A growth chart in a closet, a partial name stenciled on the basement wall, a map of the upstairs rooms and their measurements under the window seat cabinet... I became very interested in learning about these people. Who were they? What were they like? They traveled through their day-to-day lives in the same rooms that we do...were they anything like us? And what did this house look like when it was new?

I decided to start digging...through the house, the local museum and any old records I could find. The result was a three year project that, though still not entirely complete (will it ever be?), has given us a renewed respect for our home. The knowledge has guided us in the renovations and decorating of the place as we have become more sensitive to the original character that the house posseses.

Researching your home's history is a rewarding hobby, the methods of which are the same as for researching your family's genealogy, with some slight variations. I will warn you, though, that it is an obsessive hobby that can drive you to spend hours searching for the answer to one small question, only to end up with several new questions to ponder.

Where To Begin?

If you would like to start, the first thing you'll need to do is to study the house itself. Take some time to get to know the details of your home. Do you know about how old it is? Grab a flashlight and start looking for anything left by previous owners, such as writing on the walls. Check the basement and attic. Look around outside for names or initials written in concrete. Also, look at the design details of your home. They will give you clues to the building's age and whether there were additions added on. Make note of anything you might find, including any old landscaping or plants that you think may have been there for quite awhile.

The following site is a great resource for identifying the approximate age and style of your home. It is full of interesting information.

http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Features/Architectural_Housing_Styles/

Good Luck! And check back as I will continue to post information on this topic over the next couple of weeks. My next post will list some good resources available to get your house history up and going.

Mmmmm....Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade!

Making fresh-squeezed lemonade on a hot summer day is one of those activities everyone should be required to do on their summer vacation. The recipe really doesn't matter so much as the experience of squeezing the juice and drinking the end-result under a shade tree in the backyard.

There are as many recipes for lemonade as there are people who like to drink it! But here is a very simple and quick way to stir up a pitcher full of old-fashioned flavor! Measurements are not exact because much depends on your own individual tastes.

You'll need 5 or 6 lemons, about 1 1/2 quarts of water and a cup or so of sugar. Squeeze the juice of all but one of the lemons using a reamer or glass juicer. Strain into your pitcher to remove the seeds and pulp. Add the water and sugar, to your taste, and stir. Slice the remaining lemon and place in the pitcher for added flavor and to make it pretty. Or, you can place a slice in each glass before serving. Voila! Easy!

An optional step that I use when I have time is to boil the lemon rinds in 1 1/2 cups of the water for 7 or 8 minutes to extract even more lemony flavor. Add that to the juice, sugar and remaining water and stir. Fill glasses with ice and pour in the delicious beverage!

Enjoy!

vintage image from http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html